Overcome Fears Through Lucid Dreaming

“You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.” ~Yogi Bhajan

It took me a second to realize what was happening.

I was hanging onto a rope and headed straight for the sky.

I must have been around 100 feet in the air. I was looking at the ground and it kept getting smaller and smaller. I couldn’t take it anymore and closed my eyes.

When I opened them again I was lying in my bed.

But this was no ordinary dream. I was actually aware of what was happening, as it happened. I was “awake” inside my head.

Let’s Rewind 7 Days

I was looking around the Internet and came across something called lucid dreaming. It talked about learning how to hack your dreams, to wake up inside the dream world and manipulate it as you wished.

I wasn’t skeptical in the slightest. You see, I remembered back to my childhood where I would “wake up” in these strange places then all of a sudden I’d be right back in bed.

Could it be? Something I’d been puzzled about my whole life was finally to be answered. It was more than I could ever have imagined.

Not only could I wake up in my dreams, but I could train myself to do it whenever I wanted. I’d heard it can take up to three months for the average person to learn, so I got to work straight away.

Seven days later when I was thundering toward the sky, it was my first taste of intentional lucidity. Nearly one year later and my eyes have seen things people only dream about.

Let’s Get One Thing Straight

I don’t want you to think of lucid dreaming as some weird new-age phenomenon. That couldn’t be further than the truth. Buddhists have been practicing it for thousands of years, and it’s even been scientifically proven.

A lucid dream simply means you are aware you are dreaming. Even though you might not remember them, I can guarantee that you dream multiple times per night. All you need to do to become lucid is switch on your conscious mind.

Once you are awake inside the dream you have the power to do anything. The dream world is inside your head, which means you can control anything with your mind.

You can fly like a bird
You can walk through doors
You can visit alien planets

There are literally millions of things you can do. I’m not going to waste the next 1,000,000 words listing a few of them. I would like to tell you about one special thing I’ve noticed.

What Is an Amygdala?

The amygdala controls the body’s flight-or-flight response. And it can cause you great pain because of the way it works. Let me explain…

Imagine some bullies threw a young boy into a swimming pool. He is frightened for his life and thinks he will die. His amygdala programs itself to associate water with fear.

Now that young boy will grow up scared of going in the water. The only way to reprogram the amygdala is to expose himself. If he goes into the water and his amygdala realizes nothing bad will happen, the fear will be gone.

Vertigo and Roofing Don’t Mix

I was scared of heights. I also ended up working with my dad’s roofing company, which meant I was required to climb up high ladders and walk around roofs.

I’m sure you can imagine how scary this was. I knew the subconscious mind couldn’t tell the difference between the dream world and reality, so I decided to do a test.

I would overcome my fear of heights using lucid dreams.

For the next few months I would do crazy stuff in my lucid dreams: jump out of a helicopter without a parachute, climb about roofs, and even do massive backflips off a huge ski jump.

After a while I just stopped being afraid of heights. I reprogrammed my amygdala to stop flicking my flight-or-flight response on overdrive when I was up anywhere high.

This Can Work for You

After hearing about what people use their lucid dreams for, I determined one thing: I wasn’t the first person to use lucidity to banish fears, anxiety, and confidence issues.

People have been using them all the time, only they didn’t tell you about it because they didn’t have lucid dreaming blogs.

Let’s Talk Pick-Up

I only use this example because you will recognize it, plus it can give single people around the world hope.

In pick-up (I’ve read The Game) the teacher will tell the student to go around the club and ask hundreds of girls out. They do this for a reason. Once the student has been rejected hundreds of times his amygdala will reprogram itself to feel no fear.

Now he can confidently walk up to any girl in the club and speak to them with ease. It’s such a famous tactic because it works. But that’s hard, right?

Who has the guts to get rejected by hundreds of girls in a club?

Do you remember what I said about the subconscious mind not knowing the difference between dreams and reality?

Dreams Can Mimic Reality

You can walk up to hundreds of girls in your lucid dreams and ask them out. You can do the funky chicken in the middle of the dance floor if you like. But after a while you will no longer fear approaching girls in clubs or doing the funky chicken.

And your brain is reprogrammed so you have no fear in the real word, too.

This is another list that goes on and on:

Practice giving speeches in front of an audience
Touch scary animals
Ride in an elevator
Shop in a busy supermarket

You can banish any fears, anxieties, or confidence issues through lucid dreaming.

Let’s Get to the Juicy Stuff

You know the score by now. The possibilities within lucid dreams are unlimited. Here’s a simple way to start today.

Remember your dreams.

You won’t remember being lucid if you don’t have good dream recall. This means you have to start training yourself to remember your dreams. Pretty self-explanatory, yeah?

All you need to do is start writing down your dreams in a journal. As soon as you wake up in the morning, go over the dream in your head then write them down before they disappear forever. Your dream memory will slowly improve.

Try remaining still and keeping your eyes closed before you start going over the dream in your head. Don’t worry if you don’t get this part straight away as it takes time.

Perform reality checks.

Some things won’t be as they seem in the dream world. You need to start staring at your hands during the day and asking yourself if you are dreaming. You really need to shift your awareness onto your hands and really believe it could be a dream.

Soon it will eventually become a subconscious habit and you will automatically stare at your hands in a dream. When you do, you will notice they are completely different and your conscious mind will switch on. Remember and do about 20-30 of these reality checks during the day.

Use lucid affirmations.

When you go to bed at night it’s important to give yourself affirmations. It’s a bit like planting secret codes inside your mind. Tell yourself when you are dreaming you will realize it’s a dream.

A better one to do is stare at your hands for about five minutes while repeating to yourself, “When I see my hands in my dream, I will become lucid.” This might not bring on lucidity on its own, but it’s part of the full package and they all work together.

Visualize your lucid dreams.

Once you finish your affirmations you should be getting ready to go to sleep. When you are lying in bed try and visualize yourself dreaming, then suddenly becoming aware it’s a dream.

What are you doing? Who are you with? When you are visualizing the lucid dream you should try and use as much of your senses as possible. I want you to continue visualizing the lucid dream until you fall asleep.

These 4 Steps Work

The steps I’ve laid out for you are the exact same ones I used to have my first lucid dream. If you keep doing them every day you will definitely wake up inside the dream world at some point. It’s all about remaining committed.

I can honestly say that lucid dreaming is the most important thing in the world to me. I hope you push through until you have one, because I know it can change your life.

Photo by Stefanie Neves